by Feng Yue
The copper mirror shattered, transforming into shards of light, revealing the hall tainted by blackness. The entire hall had been corroded by a flesh-like darkness. The pure black color seeped into the stones. The abyss music theory transformed into pulsing veins.
The entire hall had turned into the body of a giant beast. And Ye Qingxuan was inside of it!
In the heart of the darkness, tentacles dropped down. The layers thinned and narrowed, delicately reaching into the Sacred Fire. However, the corrosive music theory did not stimulate the Fire’s counterattack.
The music theory changed nine times and the end of the tentacles were completely different. They grew radiant like fire as if coming from the same place as the Sacred Fire.
This was Paganini’s specialty—Channeling Change.
Otherwise, how could he be undiscovered for dozens of years as a demonic follower until he suddenly dragged half of the Holy Choir into the abyss in one day? That day, he had shaken the world. Hundreds of years later, the human world would once again be shaken.
Within the abyss, Paganini immediately rose to the top of the ‘dark followers.’ His status was even above that of Hyakume’s first daughter, the Eagle Wing Mother.
Before Ye Qingxuan’s arrival, he had already transformed this place into his territory. He used his music theory to imitate the Sacred Fire and quietly meld into the flames. Then he slowly, carefully polluted it until it became part of him! He would then swallow everything and he had almost succeeded!
The outer edge of the Sacred Fire had already blackened. The hardest part was complete but with Elsa sleeping, the Sacred Fire did not even know. Next, he could have gone with the flow, pushing it easily until the Fire was completely swallowed.
But someone had burst through, stirring up a mess without following the rules, respecting authority or manners, and pulled out his sword!
With an unhesitant throw of the sword, he had shattered the body Paganini created and jumped into the Sacred Flame dozens of meters away. Compared to the immense power, the moonlight was nothing.
Ye Qingxuan’s action was like sticking an elephant with a needle.
The problem though, was that he had stuck the elephant when the giant snake was halfway through swallowing it and the elephant reacted…
Countless delicate and complex purification theories solidified into pure moonlight. It stabbed into the fire to disturb the abyss theory.
It was like a drop of water in a pot of oil—it exploded!
The Sacred Fire blazed furiously. Terrifying power converged, destroying all power that dared to invade it. This included the moonlight. It also included Paganini.
When the moonlight clashed with the fire, the fighting only lasted for a moment. The music theory twisted, fought, and rejected, creating thousands of changes in an instant. Ye Qingxuan guided the fight toward the way of Modifications.
He obviously did not have any knowledge of it and was defeated. However, his goal was achieved.
The music theory changed constantly but the abyss theory that had used the Channeling Change could not keep up. The slight disparity was obvious. Even water was divided between pure and murky. Thus, the Sacred Fire began rejecting and purifying!
In an instant, the lively and writhing darkness screamed. It jumped from the fire like black oil splashing out of a well. It was endless. But the oil had already been ignited. The layer of firelight shrieked and could not continue.
Paganini’s hard work had failed!
“From your saint’s position, you abandoned your human body. This must be your body now, right?” Ye Qingxuan stared coldly at the sticky darkness with mockery. “How is it? How does it feel to be burned from the inside out?”
“Wh-why-” the voice rasped. “Why?!”
Paganini’s question was unclear but Ye Qingxuan understood: why would Ye Qingxuan choose to fight a dark follower so far above him?
“Firstly, thank you for lowering yourself to waste so much time talking to me.” Ye Qingxuan bowed in gratitude. “To be honest, I almost believed for a moment that you really just wanted to talk.”
“Why…”
Why didn’t he believe it? “It’s simple. I don’t deserve it.” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “Someone as powerful as you doesn’t need to waste so much effort on talking. There’s nothing wrong with talking about principles but ants and dust don’t need to know this. Just squashing them is a much better choice. Unless…” Ye Qingxuan paused. His gaze was mysterious. “Unless you’re trying to drag out the time!”
“You’re more difficult than I thought. Ye Qingxuan…you’re beyond my expectations, just like your father.”
Black tar bubbled on the ceiling, the walls, and the ground. Countless bubbles burst with a hoarse laugh.
“Sadly, you don’t know what you missed… You missed the only chance to learn about Ye Lanzhou… You will never, never know how he died.”
Under the strange laugh, the ball of blackness surged. A vague figure slowly emerged. It transformed into a black cape again. A white face reached out of the mud and opened its mouth, exhaling deeply.
A suffocating wind blew through the hall.
Ye Qingxuan paled. He had recovered?
If one wanted to use the Channeling Change to steal the Sacred Fire’s power, he needed to undo all defenses and enter it completely. He should be extremely weak. In addition to being burned and cleansed by the Sacred Fire, he also suffered the abyss music theory’s backlash. It was a fatal wound.
It was as if someone had a third degree burn and his immune system broke down. It was even possible to drop down dead…even though this may be too insignificant to Paganini. But Ye Qingxuan had not expected for him to recover so quickly!
It was too fast. So incredibly fast…
After a few short exchanges, Ye Qingxuan had not even found a weakness to stab but Paganini had quickly extinguished the fire on himself. He had reconstructed the broken music theory and scepter.
He had not recovered fully but he was not weak and defenseless now. For someone as strong as Paganini, who had already become an elite of the scepter level hundreds of years ago, had been a saint, and was a dark follower in the abyss…
He could completely destroy Ye Qingxuan with just a pinky finger!
He could die from the backlash of his music theory breakdown.
He could be tormented to death.
He could have a mental breakdown and go crazy until death.
His body could degenerate and wither until death.
Hundreds of ways to die flashed past his mind. If Paganini was creative, he could probably think of more fun ways.
“Infinite movement,” Paganini suddenly said. He stared at his regenerated hands. They were slender and white. Different from regular humans, each finger had four joints. They were mesmerizing when he stretched them out.
“You must be very confused as to how I could instantly heal a wound that should take decades,” he said. “It’s simple. Back when I became a saint and inherited the name of ‘Paganini,’ the ritual known as ‘infinite movement’ happened.
“After that ritual, I am able to construct music theory thousands of times faster than the average man. That means that, as long as I can withstand it, I can achieve results in the snap of a finger that others need tens of thousands of times more for.
“There are many restrictions for the ritual and the Sacred City’s tastes are very annoying. If not for your reminder today, I would have forgotten all about it. A pity.” With that, Paganini reached out. Blackness came in plumes, weighing down with thousands of tons.
Ye Qingxuan was dragged to the air. He spat out blood but could not move. He could sense that the aether around him was quickly extinguishing as if he had fallen into the abyss. The slightest breath could cause his music theory to fall apart.
On his heart, a crack appeared on the sub-originator. He could barely maintain his heartbeat.
It would collapse at the slightest touch!
386 The chi
ld of peace
“You still won’t give up. You must hold some kind of faith or hope in your mind, right?” Paganini seemed to have made up his mind to torture him to death. “Even to this degree, you still think that someone will come to save you? Stop dreaming, Ye Qingxuan. That little girl has burned down long ago. Do you think she can wake up to call your name again? Or…are you still waiting for him?”
Just as the voice fell, a man was thrown in from outside.
Then, a glow of light flew into Paganini’s body. In an instant, black feathers were flying around. Paganini’s emaciated body was enveloped in a robe. The robe was embroidered with golden silk threads and decorated with stars and roses. The gospels of the Scriptures were depicted on the clothing. After falling into the darkness, the cloth turned dark and gloomy without deducting from its grandeur and mystery.
It was the Garment of Original Sin!
What surprised Ye Qingxuan more than this was the dying young man on the ground. He was on his last breath.
Wolf Flute?
He was almost shocked to death.
Ye Qingxuan had been waiting for him to rescue or to request the Knights Templar for reinforcements! In the blink of an eye however, Wolf Flute was beaten into such a pathetic state.
Come on man? Where is your dignity as a new Scepter? Ye Qingxuan thought.
“Well, those guys are so impudent! I had to fight with six people at the same time…” Wolf Flute spoke embarrassedly with a helpless but angry face. “Shouldn’t it be one-on-one?”
“Why are you so unreliable?” Ye Qingxuan wanted to cry. “From the first time to now, you’ve never come in handy! Man!”
“Who said that?” Wolf Flute became angry. He looked so wronged. “I gave you a whistle!”
Whistle… F*cking whistle! Thinking of the whistle, Ye Qingxuan became furious. “I had blown it earlier. It was useless!”
Hearing him say so, Wolf Flute was overjoyed. “You blew it? That’s good…” In spite of the harsh melody in the dark, he lowered his eyes, calculating the time.
It was about time…
-
“My Lord,” a husky voice sang softly in the still sky. Thus, pious praising melodies sounded above the dozens of large iron whales.
In the clear melody, countless priests closed their eyes and whispered, “Make me your child of peace and see your presence in hatred.” Holy light shone from their bodies, melting into one another. There seemed to be lights from heaven shining above the dark iron whales, countless like the stars in the night sky.
There were stars shining above the burning iron curtain in the sky. The solemn praises of countless people echoed here.
They were praying.
They were chanting.
“Make me your child of peace, and sow thy light in this darkness!”
As if dozens of great silver bells were ringing, the deafening roar spread. In the roar, the lights gathered like an ocean, flooding the sky. At this moment, the sky was like an ocean of light hung upside-down. In the countless ripples, the iron whales hissed, playing the sacred melody.
On the dark scorched earth, the city hung frozen in the sky and sea of light. Many priests worshiped before the emblem, and solemnly praised, “Make me your child of peace and in forgiveness, we shall receive amnesty.”
Between heaven and earth, everything was in silence at that moment.
Only the first husky voice was heard. It informed the whole world of the only truth of the world. “We receive when we give and we will enter eternity in death!”
In that hoarse chanting, the mighty solemn music finally reached the climax. The iron whales’ hissing was heard here and there. It was the sound numerous organs roaring in the steel temple.
In the belly of every iron whale, there was a huge steel temple. The green gold and the black iron emanated with an eternal stillness and solemness.
All priests knelt reverently before the holy emblem and prayed. Under the emblem was a huge organ embedded in the iron wall. The enthusiastic musicians separated into groups of threes and became one with each other. They cooperated with each other, playing the six levels of meters-wide keys. This was just the tip of the iceberg!
Under those nimble fingers, the complex melody was deduced and turned into a complex command. The keys were played, involving countless gears, levers, springs, and precision components. The organ, which occupied hundreds of cubic meters of the iron whale, huffed and puffed with hot steam, hissing. The majestic water vapor and the whale song ejected from the organ’s pipe. It unleashed tides and waves of frenzy in the sea of light.
In the sky, the hanging ocean was slowly changing. Among the dozens of iron whales, inside the vague circle, a lotus blossom bloomed. Countless rays of light overlapped and shone down, stagnating in mid-air. The light loomed over the solidified city.
The bloom of the light lotus was so huge but it looked so peaceful. It was as if all the beauty in the world was gathered here so that all the lost souls could rest in peace.
“Mr. Bann, the Requiem ritual has been completed.” In the middle of the temple, the priest with a sword half knelt before Bann and said seriously, “The power of the Holy Spirit has been assembled in the Sacred City, and Heaven’s Door will open here in your will! Please issue the order.”
Behind Bann, Colt gazed the long sword with a hint of ecstasy.
The Heaven’s Door! It was the Heaven’s Door! It was the artifact cast by three generations of Pope, the sword of all Kings of Yellow throughout history, and the legend that had beheaded one of the seven catastrophic dragons!
According to the prophecy, the sword will open Heaven’s Door on the final battlefield “Armageddon” of human and natural catastrophes, purify six hundred and sixty-six natural catastrophes and annihilate Hyakume completely!
Colt lowered his head, kneeling under this magnificent power, and dared not even gaze at the unadorned sword.
It was the light! To him, it felt like the first light in the world creation myths that had split the chaos. It was enough to pierce one’s eyes, to destroy one’s senses, and to let the mortal man who was born with the original sin evaporate completely at just one glance!
But in everyone’s eyes, what Bann was holding in hand was just a simple sword cast by black iron, without any decorations or any specialty. They couldn’t see its significance and solemn status at all. Now, everything was ready and the melody of the Requiem resounded between heaven and earth.
Heaven’s Door was about to open but Bann remained silent. He looked cold, neither feverish nor excited, and held the sword. As if he had sunk in meditation, he was as motionless as iron.
“Your Excellency.” For a long while, there was no response. The priest with the sword looked up at him in confusion. “Your Excellency, would you issue your order?”
Bann did not speak. He looked up silently, staring the huge city that solidified in sky out of the porthole. There were no emotions in his eyes.
Five minutes left… There were still five minutes to the appointed time he made with Ye Qingxuan. But there was still no sign of success. He only felt the fountain of darkness erupting, about to envelop everything.
Five minutes left…
He retracted his gaze, his voice hoarse. “It is not the time yet.”
Colt was stunned. He looked up at Bann’s back. His eyes changed in an instant and finally, a hint of rage flashed.
“Sir, this is the order of the Sacred City!” Colt stepped forward seriously. “The Cardinals are waiting for your reply.”
“I said, it is not the time yet,” Bann responded indifferently. “I am in charge here. You need not say more.”
“Not the time? This is the last chance!” Colt raised his voice high and glared at him. “Your Excellency, do you want to watch the abyss swallow Auschwitz? Now is not the time for indecision. Please do not delay. Issue your order now. Or…” He paused. A hint of malice showed in his stern expression. “Are you going to sit back and watch the situation de
teriorate for some personal reasons?”
“What did you say?” Bann raised his eyes. There seemed to be something in them, cold as iron.
Colt unconsciously stepped back. At that moment, he felt something crush down above his head, like the sword from God’s punishment. But soon, but he revealed a hint of sneer.
“You think I don’t know? Among those who landed there is your adopted son, right?” He grinned and uttered the name as if chewing it between his teeth, “Ye Qingxuan!
“You disregarded the order of the Knights Templar and put a mere musician into the exploration team in order to earn credit and honor for him. Now, the situation deteriorated but you continued blundering, allowing things get out of control. You ignored the overall picture because of your own purpose! Your Excellency, how do you explain this?”
Bann remained silent with an indifferent look. He just looked at Colt. Faint cold light flowed under his sharp eyebrows as if the sword was ringing angrily in the sheath.
Being looked by that pair of eyes, Colt paled. Soon, he clenched the holy emblem in the hand as if the emblem can give him infinite strength. He slowly lifted it. “I command you on behalf of the Pope, Commander Bann! Open the Heaven’s Door now without delay! Otherwise…” He showed a nasty look. “Otherwise, I will now tell the Cardinals to deprive you of your command!”
The emblem hung high before Bann. It felt like tons weighing down on him.
“How dare you?!” All the Knights Templar who guarded the surroundings came forward with swords held in hands. Their eyes glared at Colt.
“Stop!” Bann roared. He pursed his lips, his shoulders trembling as if he was suppressed by the emblem that represented the scriptures
After a long while, he bowed his head and spoke with his voice hoarse. “As His Holiness’s oracle.”
He closed his eyes.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
Little Yezi, I’m sorry.
In his hand, Heaven’s Door slowly lit up and issued a long and low roar. But at that instant, it suddenly trembled as if it sensed the arrival of something. Then, the sea of light set off the waves of fury.